Spartanburg competing to participate in health initiative

Friday

Aug 1, 2014 at 7:08 PM

Spartanburg could be one of five communities on the Way to Wellville.

BY LYNNE P. SHACKLEFORDlynne.shackleford@shj.com

Spartanburg could be one of five communities on the Way to Wellville.The city and nine other mid-sized communities across the nation are in the running to become part of a five-year wellness experiment. It is a competition to find five communities to compete over five years for improvements in five measures of health and economic vitality. Health initiatives in communities with the greatest amount of improvement will be used as a model for other communities.The “Way to Wellville” experiment is sponsored by the nonprofit organization Health Initiative Coordinating Council or HICCup. It was created by tech investor Esther Dyson, named by Time magazine as one of the 10 most influential women in technology. Cities were invited to apply for the wellness program, and that list has since been whittled to 10. The list will be narrowed down again to the actual five communities that will ultimately take part in the five-year opportunity that will link the five chosen communities to national experts, research and each other’s successes.In Spartanburg, the proposal is to improve outcomes for kindergarten readiness, increase access to healthcare resources and reduce obesity through healthy eating and active living. Friday, Dyson and Rick Brush, chief executive officer of HICCup stopped in Spartanburg for a daylong tour. Part of the tour was taken by bus, and the other part was taken by bicycle. They saw redevelopment efforts in the Northside neighborhood and stopped by Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM), the Mary Black Foundation and the YMCA to find out about partnerships and measures already in place to tackle community challenges. At a lunch stop at the YMCA, representatives from the Partners for Active Living, the Butterfly Foundation, the Hub City Farmers’ Market, the city of Spartanburg, Spartanburg School District 6 and the Mary Black Foundation pitched the successes: Spartanburg was the state’s first Bicycle Friendly Community, was the state’s second city to offer public access to school playgrounds, has the city’s commitment to parks and recreation improvements and has a vast network of trails. One of the most impressive initiatives, Dyson said, is the “culinary bootcamp” instituted at District 6 this year. Cafeteria workers are transformed into chefs and use locally grown fruits and vegetables to make homemade meals. “I’m convinced that to teach kids about active living and healthy eating — a sharp knife is the way to go,” District 6 Superintendent Darryl Owings told the roundtable group at lunch Friday. Owings said the cafeteria workers have used sharp knives to slice raw vegetables for 16 new recipes for homemade soups and salads. Owings said the days of “pinch, pulling, drop and heating,” processed foods for the district’s students are gone. “For our highest poverty students, we serve three meals a day — breakfast, lunch and supper before they go home — and you can’t put love in processed foods,” he said.Dyson said the program was “wonderful” and asked how the district plans to pay for the fresh foods, which are often more expensive than bulk processed foods. “Dr. Owings understands he will take a hit cost-wise this year, but he’s committed in that all schools will start the program at once,” said Mary Black Foundation President Kathy Dunleavy.Dyson said it will be interesting to monitor the district’s incidents of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and diabetes a couple of years after the program is in place. Spartanburg County districts are able to measure childhood obesity trends through an annual surveillance study of first-, second- and third-graders. The study enables the districts, through the Partners for Active Living, to look at students’ age, gender, race and whether they receive free or reduced lunches to determine the correlation of poverty to unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyles. The Way to Wellville winners will be announced mid-August. Other finalists are Scranton, Pa., Oxford, Maine, Clatsop County, Ore., Lake County, Calif., Winona, Minn., Columbus/Bartholomew County, Ind., Greater Muskegon, Miss., Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Clinton County, N.Y.

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